Sarah Weber

Sarah Weber was born in Seoul in 1973 and adopted by an American missionary family who had lived in Korea for generations. The youngest of four, she was raised in Seoul by parents who spoke fluent Korean, noting that her father’s family had lived in Korea for four generations, beginning with the first arrival of Presbyterian missionary (H.G. Underwood) to Incheon in 1885. Despite growing up surrounded by Korean culture – Sarah felt largely disconnected from it, attending international schools and an English-speaking church without learning the Korean language. She describes the painful irony of standing silently beside her fluent white mother in Korean markets, and realizing her parents sometimes used Korean to speak privately —“weaponizing my own language against me.” Though adoption was openly acknowledged in her family, they never discussed the complexities of growing up as a transracial adoptee.

After moving to the United States for college, Sarah spent years outside the adoptee community before finding connection in Michigan and beginning to unpack the systemic structures behind international adoption. Today, as the mother of an intercountry adoptee herself, Sarah hopes her daughter knows she will always provide a safe space for whenever she is ready to explore her own identity and experience on her own terms.

Special thanks to the Thomas and Wonsook Foundation for their generous support in making this project possible. And to Joy Lieberthal Rho, founder of IAMAdoptee for her consultation and post-support services for this project.

Want to watch in your native language? Click the Translation/CC button at the bottom of the video player!